"easy to stand for election as an independent candidate, although wins are very rare and usually involve special circumstances (for example Martin Bell's 1997 victory against the discredited Conservative MP Neil Hamilton was aided by the major parties standing aside and not contesting the election). Following the 2005 General Election there were three independent MPs, the highest number since 1945, however only one of these was returned in the 2010 election. Almost any registered elector is entitled to stand for election to parliament, provided they are able to submit nomination forms signed by ten voters from the constituency they wish"
"for their seats, and were both defeated, in Hamilton's case by the former BBC Reporter Martin Bell, who stood as an anti-sleaze candidate, both the Labour and Liberal Democrat candidates withdrawing in his favour, amidst further publicity unfavourable to the Conservatives. Major later commented in his memoirs on the ""routine"" with which he would be telephoned over the weekend to be warned of the latest embarrassing story due to break. He wrote that he took a stern line against financial impropriety, but was angered at the way in which a host of scandals, many of them petty sexual misdemeanours by"
"Hamilton, Allan Stewart and Piers Merchant. Both Stewart and Merchant were found to have support consistent with their party's standing, but in Tatton ""there was massive hostility to Hamilton"". When Martin Bell, the BBC war correspondent, announced he would stand as an independent candidate in Tatton, the Labour and Liberal Democrat candidates for the area stood down in order to give Bell a clear run against Hamilton. Bell trounced Hamilton, winning by a majority of over 11,000 votes with a swing of 48%. Although Hamilton vowed to return to parliament, this defeat marked the end of his political career in"
"the country, where the sitting Conservative Member of Parliament, Neil Hamilton, was embroiled in ""sleaze"" allegations. The Labour and Liberal Democrat parties withdrew their candidates in Bell's favour in a plan masterminded by Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair's press secretary. Hamilton was trounced, and Bell was elected an MP with a majority of 11,077 votes – overturning a Conservative majority of over 22,000 – and thus became the first successful independent parliamentary candidate since 1951. He did not often speak in the House of Commons, and when he did, it was mostly on matters of British policy in the former Yugoslavia"
"friend Martin Bell who was standing for Parliament in Tatton as an Independent candidate. Stewart was alongside Bell when they were confronted by the sitting Conservative Member of Parliament for the constituency, Neil Hamilton and his wife Christine on Knutsford Heath. Bell, who was opposing Hamilton as a result of accusations that Hamilton had accepted money for promoting causes in Parliament, gave Stewart the credit for defining his criticism of Hamilton as having already admitted to ""conduct unbecoming"". Since leaving the army Stewart has become a well-known commentator upon military and political affairs, frequently commenting upon the defence policy of"
"The original IRA message was confusing and led to the evacuation of the Wilmslow Police Station to the local leisure centre not far from the explosion. Nobody was hurt. In the general election of the same year, the parliamentary constituency of Tatton, in which Wilmslow falls, made headlines as part of the ""sleaze"" accusations levelled against the then Conservative Government. Tatton MP, Neil Hamilton, was accused of accepting cash for tabling Parliamentary questions, and subsequently defeated in the election by independent candidate Martin Bell. Bell was supported in his door to door canvasing for votes by David Soul and served"
"Martin Bell OBE, veteran BBC war correspondent. Preamble. ""Trusted Mole"" is written in two parts covering each of the author's long deployments to Bosnia operating under the ""nom de guerre"" Mike Stanley. His part-Scottish and part-Serbian ancestry equipped him with linguistic skills and psychological insights into both the Western and Eastern mentalities that collided in the Balkans in the 1990s. Furthermore, not only did he speak Serbo-Croatian but he had also studied Russian at Manchester University and in Minsk in the former Soviet Union, further adding to his unique cross-cultural world view. He had also been formally trained in psychological"
"Vs Helen Gahagan Douglas--Sexual Politics and the Red Scare, 1950"" (1998) studies an era in California politics as it reflected and influenced national issues in the post-World War II years. He also wrote an e-book on the Obama-Romney race in 2012 titled ""Truth, Lies, and Videotape."" In 2003 and 2004, Mitchell wrote and spoke about issues in journalistic integrity. In an ""E&P"" column in 2003, Mitchell wrote about having made up some quotes in a man-in-the-street article at age 21, while working as a summer intern (what he described as his Jayson Blair moment). He was then working for the"
"the Bell Pottinger group). Bell was instrumental in the Conservative general election campaign victories of Margaret Thatcher and was seen as Thatcher's ""favourite spin-doctor and confidant."" For her first 1979 victory, he created the 'Labour Isn't Working' campaign and advised the future Prime Minister on interview techniques, clothing, and even hairstyle choices. He also courted newspaper editors and worked on devastating attacks on the Labour Party. In 1984 Bell was seconded to the National Coal Board to advise on media strategy at the start of the miners' strike. He worked on media relations and helped set the terms of the"
"hoped to challenge Tyndall for the leadership and fight a dirty and highly divisive campaign to increase the sabotage. Hill's activities on behalf of the BNP included a June 1982 attempted takeover of the BBC radio show ""Any Questions?"" when Hill and some supporters disrupted a broadcast by shouting pro-BNP slogans from the audience. In the 1983 general election, he contested Leicester West for the BNP, receiving 469 votes (1.0%). Hill revealed himself to be a ""mole"" in 1984 in a documentary for Channel 4 which focused on the links between the British far right and international terrorism, as well"
"UK Ambassador for Humanitarian Emergencies in 2001, to work to improve the plight of children affected by conflict and natural disaster. He made a brief return to television news in 2003 when he provided analysis of the Iraq invasion for ITN's Channel Five News. He compiled films from the daily video footage and drew on his experience to comment upon this material. Bell reversed his previous decision and stood for the European Parliament in the June 2004 elections, but was ultimately unsuccessful as an independent candidate in the East of England region, winning only 6.2% of the vote. Before the"
"that Pickles was Shadow Minister for Transport (September 2001 – June 2002) and Shadow Minister for London. At the 2001 general election, the independent candidate Martin Bell, who was the MP for Tatton, having run a campaign of ""anti-sleaze"", stood against Pickles due to accusations that the Peniel Pentecostal Church had infiltrated the local Conservative branch. Pickles's vote was reduced from 45.4% to 38%, but he retained his seat by a margin of 2,821 votes (6.5%) becoming elected with only 38% of the votes against Martin Bell's 31.5%. At the 2005 general election Pickles retained the seat with an increased"
"Liberal candidate Don Bell. In the 1983 British Columbia provincial election, he was a candidate for the separatist Western Canada Concept party in the North Vancouver-Seymour riding (see ""The Tyee"": ""Martin's Strange 'Dream'"" 14 June 2004, and 1983 BC provincial election results). In June 1994 White was the first MP to use electronic voting to sample the opinions of constituents. He was criticized by opponents at the time because there was a charge to place the call to vote but White defended the charge as the only way to pay for the services being provided by Maritime Tel. White was"
"overnight live coverage of the 2016 United States presidential election. In the run-up to the General Election in 2017 he interviewed five of the party leaders on BBC One in The Andrew Neil Interviews. Neil earned £200,000 to £249,999 as a BBC presenter in the financial year 2016–17. Neil was a vocal and enthusiastic proponent of British military involvement in Afghanistan, deriding those who opposed the war as ""wimps with no will to fight"", while labelling ""The Guardian"" as ""The Daily Terrorist"" and the ""New Statesman"" as the ""New Taliban"" for publishing dissenting opinions about the wisdom of British military"
"Seven Oaks, Shakerley, Winnington, Witton North, and Witton South. The constituency is named after Tatton Park, a stately home in this area. The constituency was created in 1983 from parts of the seats of Runcorn, Cheadle, Northwich and Knutsford. It was held by the Conservative Neil Hamilton until 1997. During the 1997 general election campaign, Tatton was one of the UK's highest-profile constituencies. Following Hamilton's implication in the Cash for Questions scandal of the 1990s, the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats withdrew their candidates in favour of the former BBC journalist Martin Bell, who stood as an Independent, while"
"Bell stood in Hamilton's Cheshire constituency of Tatton as an independent candidate on an ""anti-corruption"" platform. Bell easily defeated Hamilton with the assistance of the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats, who both withdrew their candidates and supplied party workers to help Bell's campaign. Sir Gordon Downey published his 900-page report in early July 1997, clearing Ian Greer, Neil Hamilton, and Tim Smith of ""The Guardian""'s original allegations that Ian Greer had paid the two MPs to table questions. However, Downey decreed that the three Fayed employees' testimony that they had processed cash payments to Hamilton amounted to ""compelling evidence"","
"to ""Fighting Talk"" on 2 November. By mid-January he had resumed his lunchtime programme on BBC Radio Leeds. Martin Kelner Martin Barry Kelner (28 May 1949 in Prestwich, Lancashire) is a British journalist, author, comedian, singer, actor and radio presenter. Kelner studied Arts and Social Studies at Strathclyde University in Glasgow, but dropped out. He was employed as a reporter on the ""Western Daily Press"" in Bristol and for the ""Oxford Mail"". He then joined the Central Office of Information, for whom he worked in Bristol, Lambeth, South London and in Birmingham. Martin Kelner moved to Radio Hallam in Sheffield"
"in the Conservative defeat. A number of political scandals in the 1990s (building on previous examples in the 1980s) created the impression of what is described in the British press as ""sleaze"": a perception, peaking towards the end of the Major era, that the Conservatives were associated with political corruption and hypocrisy. In particular the successful entrapment of Graham Riddick and David Tredinnick in the ""cash for questions"" scandal, the contemporaneous misconduct as a minister by Neil Hamilton (who lost a consequent libel action against ""The Guardian""), and the convictions of former Cabinet member Jonathan Aitken and former party deputy"
"Voluntary Aid Detachment in England in World War II, as a military hospital cook and nurse. After the war Bell worked in professional radio as a writer and broadcaster for Dunedin station 4YA. During the 1950s Bell attended two further world conferences of country women's organisations, in Toronto and Edinburgh, and lectured and broadcast on New Zealand throughout Europe and Australia. In 1960 Bell stood unsuccessfully for the New Zealand National Party against sitting member Ethel McMillan in the safe Labour seat of Dunedin North. She later stood again, unsuccessfully, for the National Party nomination for Waitaki. Bell died in"
"story was picked up by national newspapers. ""The Independent"" asked ""is Sir Stuart Bell Britain's laziest MP?"" The ""Guardian"" fact-checked the ""laziest MP"" claim and found that: ""Bell has been an MP for nearly 30 years and has had a distinguished career in parliament as a frontbench spokesman on trade and industry in opposition and the spokesman for the Church of England in the House of Commons and member of the House of Commons commission until last year. He's part of a breed of politicians – also including the Tory Edward Leigh and Labour's Gerald Kaufman – who have been"
"Leeds West constituency for Labour. Meadowcroft only served one term in Parliament. Within a year of entering the House of Commons, Battle was promoted to the Opposition Whip's Office by Neil Kinnock in 1988, but resigned in protest at Labour's support for the Major ministry over the 1991 Gulf War. After the 1992 general election, he joined the frontbench of the new Labour Party leader, John Smith as a spokesman on Housing. Following Smith's death and the election of Tony Blair as Leader of the Labour Party in 1994, Battle was moved in a reshuffle to the position of Spokesman"
"Colin Bell (journalist) Dr Colin J. Bell is a journalist, broadcaster and author. Colin J. Bell was a journalist, with newspapers including ""The Scotsman"" and former editor of ""The Scots Independent"". He made the transition to broadcasting with BBC Radio Scotland in 1984. He served the Scottish National Party as Executive Vice-Chairman, 1978-1984 and Campaign Director, Euro elections 1984. In 1979 he stood as SNP Parliamentary Candidate for West Edinburgh and also European Parliamentary Candidate for North East Scotland. In June 1996, he was the 13th Scot to be presented with the Oliver Brown Award. He later left the SNP"
"thing which could make him change his mind would be Neil Hamilton being re-selected by the Tatton Conservative Party as a candidate for the next General Election. However, future Chancellor George Osborne was selected in March 1999, as Conservative party candidate for Tatton. Hamilton lost his libel case against Mohamed Al-Fayed in December 1999, ending any prospect of him making an immediate political comeback. Though he regretted making the pledge of saying he would only serve for one term, Bell stuck to his promise. In 2001, Bell stood as an independent candidate against another Conservative MP Eric Pickles in the"
"modern communications in politics and business. He earned a reputation for ruthless news management which made him many enemies in the media. But even the Conservatives conceded they were partly defeated by their inability to find someone to match him. He played an important role in the run-up to the 1997 general election, working with Peter Mandelson to co-ordinate Labour's election campaign. He also worked hard to win support from the national media for the Labour Party, particularly from the newspapers that for many years had been anti-Labour and pro-Conservative. By March 1997, many of the leading newspapers—including ""the Sun"","
"episode of this kind, but the British press deserves these dubious laurels for its actions a full fourteen years earlier"". The man behind the campaign was the Adjutant General, Sir Garnet Wolseley – a skilled media manipulator who often leaked information to the press to effect changes in policy – and who was strongly opposed to Gladstone's policy of pulling out of the Sudan. In 1880, the Liberals had won the general election on a platform of imperial retrenchment, and Gladstone had put his principles into practice by withdrawing from the Transvaal and Afghanistan in 1881. There was an imperialist"
"""safe"" Essex constituency of Brentwood and Ongar, where there were accusations that the local Conservative Association had been infiltrated by a Pentecostal church. In this election, Labour and the Liberal Democrats did not stand aside for him. Bell came second and reduced the Conservative majority from 9,690 to 2,821. Having garnered nearly 32% of the votes and second place, Bell announced his retirement from politics, saying that ""winning one and losing one is not a bad record for an amateur"". The Channel 4 drama ""Mr White Goes to Westminster"" was loosely based on Bell's political career. Bell was appointed UNICEF"
"He was educated at The Leys School in Cambridge and King's College, Cambridge, where he achieved a First Class Honours Degree in English. He served on the committee of Cambridge University Liberal Club, including a term as Publicity Officer. He failed to obtain a commission during his two-year national service and served out his time as an acting corporal in the Suffolk Regiment serving in Cyprus during the emergency. Martin Bell joined the BBC as a reporter in Norwich in 1962 as a 24-year-old, following his graduation. He moved to London three years later, beginning a distinguished career as a"
"award for the best news coverage. He covered the campaign of Tony Blair in the 1997 UK General Election and David Cameron in the 2010 General Election. He also reported on the killing of Osama bin Laden, the Libyan, Egyptian and Syrian revolutions, the Iranian elections and protests of 2008, the terrorist attack in Mumbai, and the 2008 Presidential election in the US. He reported regularly on the ""Arab Spring"", firstly from Egypt, then Libya and most recently during more than a dozen visits to Syria; frontline dispatches that have been broadcast around the world. He interviewed Syrian President Bashar"
"Intelligence Service moved to put in place a supply of arms to the IRA in order that they could more effectively fight the British Army, and Bell and Joe Cahill were instrumental in putting in place the Libyan arms smuggling plan. In 1984, Bell openly opposed Adams' proposal to increase spending on election campaigns instead of the war against Britain. Bell was a hard-line militarist who opposed the use of funds by Sinn Féin and resented moves to end abstentionism. Bell emerged as the head of a group, which included senior figures like Danny McCann. In June 1985 Bell was"
"Martyn Bell Martyn Bell (born 17 July 1964) is an auto racing driver. Since 2006 he has contested the British Touring Car Championship, but he spent the majority of his career racing BMWs in various championships. He won one overall title and 3 class titles in his 9 years of driving BMWs for Geoff Steel (himself a former BTCC racer) and was the first person to campaign a BMW E46 in the UK. In 2006 he and Steel moved into the British Touring Car Championship in a 320i. He returned for the 2007 BTCC season with the same car under"
"the media of ""sleaze"". Their support reached its lowest ebb in late 1994, after the sudden death of Labour Party leader John Smith and the election of Tony Blair as his successor, when Labour had up to 60% of the vote in opinion polls and had a lead of some 30 points ahead of the Conservatives. The Labour lead was gradually narrowed over the next two years, as the Conservatives gained some credit for the strong economic recovery and fall in unemployment. But as the 1997 general election loomed, despite their high-profile New Labour, New Danger campaign, it was still"
"1996. Hamilton's and Greer's withdrawal of their libel actions provoked an avalanche of condemnation of the two men in the British press, led by ""The Guardian"". Parliament initiated an official inquiry into the affair, to be led by Sir Gordon Downey. In December 1996, Ian Greer's lobbying company collapsed. Downey began his inquiry in early 1997, but before he published his report Prime Minister John Major prorogued parliament for a general election, to be held on 1 May 1997. Smith resigned from parliament on 25 March, and stood down in the general election. In the election, former BBC reporter Martin"
"those two parties supported his ""anti-corruption"" campaign. Bell was ultimately successful, with a majority of 11,077. Hamilton came second. Bell did not contest the seat at the 2001 election, and the seat was won by Conservative George Osborne with a majority of 8,611 (20.8%). Osborne served the seat until standing down at the 2017 election, having been announced as the new editor of the London Evening Standard newspaper in March of that year. His successor was Esther McVey, who had been MP for nearby Wirral West from 2010 to 2015. Osborne held the seat at the 2005 election with an"